1. Field of the Invention
Comestibles such as meat, fish, poultry and vegetables are commonly batter-coated and then cooked by pan frying or deep fat frying. Batters enhance food sensory quality, but they also absorb oil during frying. The oil uptake in fried coating materials has become a concern, as excessive oil consumption is known to be a causative factor in obesity and many other health problems. In reaction to this awareness, pressure has increased from governmental and consumer groups to reduce the amount of oil and fat in foods.
The present invention relates to the development of rice-based frying batters which significantly reduce oil uptake during the frying process, while retaining desirable organoleptic properties.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Interactions during frying are believed to play an important role in determining the degree of batter oil uptake. Reduction of oil absorption in batters has been previously achieved through various means. Mechanical removal of excess oil has resulted in only minor reductions of fat. Solvent extraction has lacked commercial feasibility and public acceptance due to the potential for ingestion of residual chemicals. Use of barrier materials such as hydrated hydroxypropyl methylcellulose in frying compositions has been attempted by Meyers et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,537). This results in the formation of a gum which may be applied independently or as a mixture with a batter. The result is the creation of an oil barrier which decreases oil absorption and increases the level of water retention in the food product being fried. Other film-forming agents have also been reported to effect reduction in the oil absorption of batters upon frying. Olsen et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,583) teach the utility of gelatin and certain starches in forming films that prevents oil absorption of the finished breading product upon frying.
Numerous starch products have been used for inclusion into the batter which are claimed to reduce the extra oil absorption from the coating material. The term starch is used herein to include various modified starches such as dextrins, oxidized starch, and other starch derivatives. Generally, however, the addition of these starch products to traditional wheat flour based batters result in modest, if any reductions in oil absorption, e.g., up to 3% to 5% reductions in the oil absorbed. Apparently, even though these starches themselves may have good film-forming and oil-resisting properties, their presence is too little (normally less than 10% of the batter) to effect any significant reduction in the total oil absorption. Rarely are they used at ratios higher than 15%, especially for tempura types of batters, because good film-forming materials or thickeners when used as the main body of the batter result in low coating pickup and poor textural quality when fried.